Game Recognize Game
Ever seen one of those $100 million blockbusters and thought, “Where’d the money go?” Well it went to The Hustle: Producers skim off the top. Studios deal from the bottom of the deck. Everyone in-between overcharges for this; overpays friends for that. Pre-sell the foreign plus rentals and syndication rights. Then hype it all up to sucker the masses. Next thing you know, it’s $9.50 per tix, $4 per bottled tap water, and $6 for candy and popcorn to watch a gassed-up B-movie. It’s all a balancing act and Hollywood’s been spinning plates since vaudeville. Their main goal is to get paid, quality flick or not. (Laugh at those B.O. bombs and wack'd sequels all you want but know this: Every high-level hustler involved usually gets paid long before those ships sink.)
The record biz loves budgets, too. The Warner Bros., IDJ-Universal’s, EMI’s, Interscope’s, PolyGram’s, Virgin’s, and Sony-BMG’s of the world lock down the distribution, retail, radio stations, and video channels ensuring their status as the gatekeepers every artist must go thru in order to shine. Next, they leverage their power in order to stick artists with pimp/ho record deals that force them to re-up, recoup, and reimburse everything before they see a nickel. After the budget gets bled dry, consumers have to grab ankles on $18 CDs that might’ve cost $4 per unit. The artists goes platinum but only gets around $.80, maybe $2 if they write their own songs, before taxes and expenses, while the label and distributor (usually the same company) and retailer get fat on the rest.
But you know who the true OG hustlers are? Governments: Monarchies. Dictatorships. Democracies. Communist regimes. Regardless of country or era, at some point they all hustle. In the west, the ruling classes and politicians wrote the book on hustling. Just look at the local, state, and federal budgets and the election processes. Ask yourselves why the deck stays stacked against the little guy generation after generation. Ask yourselves why the same groups keep benefiting. Ask yourself why, despite all the outrage and reforms, the corruption continues.
Newsflash: Despite the McCain-Feingold bill, campaign finance reform married “Never-gon’-happen” and it’s ‘til death do they part. Big businesses and rich folks will always have more clout than regular voters. Kin, cronies, and insiders will keep snagging the cush jobs, fat contracts, pork projects, and preferred treatment while the masses will go on ignored and reaping the results of stupid, mismanaged government projects that will eventually need to be scrapped or overhauled then refunded by taxpayer loot and re-implemented all over again. It’s all 100% USDA Grade A certified Hustle.
The Hustle is soylent green—it’s made of people. This is why nobody trusts anyone anymore. Most everyone’s scheming and most everyone else knows it. Some hustles are legal and ethical, others aren’t. When it comes to endeavors for income, I’ve done everything from selling jewelry to cleaning toilets… Worked fast-food in bars, about 15 years in corporate, plus a few unmentionables on the side. And make no mistake: all that ever separated one hustle from the next was semantics and the slippery slopes of rationalization and social acceptance. Regardless of the fancy titles, regardless of the industry, a hustle is a hustle is a hustle. And every hustle is, on one level or another, all about getting paid.
(But again, The Hustle is made of people and people can change, if they want to.)
But you know who the true OG hustlers are? Governments: Monarchies. Dictatorships. Democracies. Communist regimes. Regardless of country or era, at some point they all hustle. In the west, the ruling classes and politicians wrote the book on hustling. Just look at the local, state, and federal budgets and the election processes. Ask yourselves why the deck stays stacked against the little guy generation after generation. Ask yourselves why the same groups keep benefiting. Ask yourself why, despite all the outrage and reforms, the corruption continues.
Newsflash: Despite the McCain-Feingold bill, campaign finance reform married “Never-gon’-happen” and it’s ‘til death do they part. Big businesses and rich folks will always have more clout than regular voters. Kin, cronies, and insiders will keep snagging the cush jobs, fat contracts, pork projects, and preferred treatment while the masses will go on ignored and reaping the results of stupid, mismanaged government projects that will eventually need to be scrapped or overhauled then refunded by taxpayer loot and re-implemented all over again. It’s all 100% USDA Grade A certified Hustle.
The Hustle is soylent green—it’s made of people. This is why nobody trusts anyone anymore. Most everyone’s scheming and most everyone else knows it. Some hustles are legal and ethical, others aren’t. When it comes to endeavors for income, I’ve done everything from selling jewelry to cleaning toilets… Worked fast-food in bars, about 15 years in corporate, plus a few unmentionables on the side. And make no mistake: all that ever separated one hustle from the next was semantics and the slippery slopes of rationalization and social acceptance. Regardless of the fancy titles, regardless of the industry, a hustle is a hustle is a hustle. And every hustle is, on one level or another, all about getting paid.
(But again, The Hustle is made of people and people can change, if they want to.)
My father always told me that all
businessmen were sons of bitches,
but I never believed it till now.
—John F. Kennedy
businessmen were sons of bitches,
but I never believed it till now.
—John F. Kennedy
